This is Seagate's most recent hard drive and their first 4TB consumer offering. With a rotational speed of just 5,900 RPM it's significantly slower than the 7,200 RPM Barracudas that it supersedes. The lower rotational speed results in approximately 10% slower sequential transfer speeds and longer access times which make this drive less suitable for use as a system drive. With peak 4k read/write speeds of 0.76/1.2 MB/s the 4TB HDD.15 lags the group leaders significantly. The HDD.15 is a far better candidate for use in a NAS (Network Attached Storage) where factors such as power consumption and cost per GB are more important than outright speeds. To conclude, the HDD.15 has a relatively disappointing small file 4K performance profile but it does offer a huge amount of storage at a very competitive price which makes it a good candidate for use in a NAS. [Aug '13HDrivePro]

This is the latest version of Western Digital's mid-range Blue drive. At only one year of age this drive is relatively new and the performance figures reflect this. With maximum sequential speeds of 180 MB/s (both read and write) the Blue is amongst the faster drives currently available and in terms of real world performance it beats its predecessor the 2010 Blue (WD10EALS) by around 18%. The 2012 Blue has a single 1TB platter which combined with its 7200 rotation speed allow for above average performance across the board. In terms of value for money a larger capacity drive will nearly always be a better choice but within the 1TB category as a system drive, the 2012 Blue is a very reasonable, if not the best, option. [Jan '14HDrivePro]

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Welcome to our consumer Hard Drive comparison. We calculate effective speed which measures performance for typical consumers. Effective speed is adjusted by cost per GB to yield value for money. Calculated values don't always tell the whole picture so we check them against thousands of individual user ratings. The customizable table below combines these factors and more to bring you the definitive list of top HDDs. Share your opinion by voting. [HDrivePro]

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